KOCHI: With just one week left for school re -opening, the city police is all set to intensify the measures to ensure safety of children. The police department has identified that road safety, drug abuse and cyber crimes are some of the major issues that are related to school children.
Aiming to review the situation and then take effective measures the city Police Commissioner K J James convened a meeting of school managements on Tuesday. Teachers and the representatives of PTA attended the meeting. The major issue raised by the teachers and parents was the unfriendly attitude of the private bus staff towards students. “Most buses are go at high speed and they very often deny transportation to students,” parents and teachers complained.
Commissioner said that the beat policemen have already been deputed on board private buses to check misbehaviour by the bus crew towards passengers, especially students and women. The presence of police in the bus will also deter other criminals engaged in pick pocketing, eve teasing, ticketless travel and also rash, negligent driving.
It was also suggested that traffic rules and safety measures should be incorporated in the curriculum to create awareness among children about road safety.
“This endeavour is to make the school officials aware of the different possibilities regarding the safe guards which can be implemented even without the assistance of the police. There has been considerable fall in the number of cases, as a result of preventive measures initiated in the beginning of last academic year,” Commissioner said
The police have also directed school authorities to ensure that the drivers appointed to drive the school buses should have an experience of at least 10 years. If the bus service is out sourced to private agency, the school authorities should keep in records the details of the driver. The buses should be fitted with speed governors. Other suggestions include appointing a road safety officer at every school, organising traffic awareness programmes, formation of road safety clubs in schools and awareness on drug abuse.